A Season of Thanks

 My aspiring gymnast

 Loved traveling with me to Texas

 Lila at her first beauty shop appointment.  She thought this was awesome!

 Sleeping "Booty" and Rapunzel

 Riding the Rhino on the farm in St. Louis was a big hit.

 She was so ready to get started on her first day of school.

This is what she did when she got her stocking in the mail that my mom sent her.  So funny teaching her these new traditions.

It is true.  I am the worst blogger ever.  I have good intentions. I compose posts in my head while I am out running or driving. I really mean to write them down, I do. But then evening comes and my brain shuts down after 8:00 pm.  I don't ever have time in the day to sit down and write so here I am on Thanksgiving weekend (oh wait now it is mid December) attempting to fit the last four months into one post.

Summer ended.  No more daily "yamburgers" from the pool.  The party was over.  I was a little worried about how she would react with the kids going back to school and being with just me all day long. I explained that the others had to go to school but she got to stay home with me and do school (I am homeschooling her this year).  So "Wow! What fun!  Won't it be great!" I tried to convince her how spectacular it would be since I had a feeling she was going to want to get on that big yellow school bus.  I was right.  But after we waved goodbye to the others that first day, she marched herself right up to the room I turned into our classroom and she got to work.  And this girl works hard!  She has an amazing ability to focus for long stretches of time.  She will sit and focus for two hours at a time.  I am the one suggesting that we take a break.  She is doing great and catching on quickly.  Her English continues to get better and better every week and it has exploded so quickly I can't even remember what it was like before she spoke English. Currently, she is struggling with pronouns which provides some comedy when she is telling on the boys.  "She (meaning 'he') did such and such.... "She won't stop.....

This of course makes the boys laugh hysterically.  September was a hard yet joyful month for me because I have never wanted to make time slow down so fast before in my life.  I know how fast the school year goes. From the start of school I have LOVED every day with Lila and I don't ever want this year to end.  I have already been dreading next year when she gets on that school bus.  She fills my days with so much joy.  My favorite moments come as we walk Macy after waving bye to Brooke on the bus.  As we walk we sing the days of the week song and pick a color of the day and find things that color.  I showed her how to pick lavender and rub it between your fingers to release the scent. I taught her that S-T-O-P spells STOP and we have to stop when we see that sign.  She gets irritated with me when I forget.  We laugh and tell stories and I help teach her numbers as I point to the numbers on the mailboxes.  I am seriously struggling with the thought of being away from her next year when she goes to school.  I tear up which is basically several times a day.

She is a champion eater and she pretty much eats everything now.  She eats a LOT but I think she burns off all of it because the girl is constantly moving!  In fact, her nickname has gone from "giggles" to "energy."  One of the checkout ladies at Kroger has come to love Lila and she sees her coming and says, "Here comes Energy!"  The hip hop teacher at the girls' dance studio calls her Energy.  When her Uncle Johan met her he said, "Wow. That girl is nonstop energy." She definitely lives up to her nickname. I signed her up for gymnastics classes at the end of August.  My goal for her was to learn to be a part of a class, follow directions, stay on her blue square, etc., and of course to have fun. I wasn't concerned about her skill level even though I knew it would take her teachers about 15 minutes to figure out she had some natural ability.  It did.  The teachers first gave her the nickname "giggles" which was her nickname given to her by the parents who met her at Hannah's Hope. I shared this with them which they thought was great.  She had no problem sitting and following directions, participating, etc. despite her limited English.  During her third class the teacher had the girls doing a forward roll from the trampoline onto a mat.  Almost all of the girls struggled to get their little bodies onto the mat.  Lila was the last one in line.  She ran full force down the trampoline like KcKayla Maroney and did a no handed front flip onto the mat.  The other mothers turned their heads towards me at the same time with their mouths wide open.  I just gave a sheepish smile and shrugged my shoulders. Then we watched as Lila did perfect cartwheels all the way back to the front of the line.  Again, the other moms turned to me mouths open again.  I just covered my face with my hands while laughing.  After class the teacher asked me to stay after for a few minutes.  Oh boy, here we go. The coach informed me that there is a class for girls who show "potential" in gymnastics.  They work at a higher level and he wanted Lila to try out the class.  She started the next week and has loved it.  She continues to live up to her name of nonstop energy and even while waiting in line she is always moving.  The radio is always playing in the background during her class which means that Lila is always moving.  Her teacher usually has to tell her at least once a class time, "Lila, less dancing and more gymnastics."  She also tried her hand at spotting the other girls on the bar one day.  All of a sudden I hear her voice from across the gym, "Good Job!  You did it!"  as she helped hurl a little girl over the bar.  Miss Laura had to tell Lila that only Miss Laura is allowed to spot the girls other girls but thank you for wanting to help.  My oh my.  Next session, Lila was cheering on some girls on the trampoline and Miss Laura said, " Lila, that is so nice of you to encourage your friends."  Lila quickly responded with, "I not helping them!  I fromise! (not a typo- promise is fromise in Lila speak)  So I have my little gymnast which thrills me since gymnastics has always been my passion, but she also loves tap dancing, ballet, running, I'm sure she will do swim team next summer, and basically she loves any activity where she is moving.  It is truly a hoot to watch her tap dance and do ballet.  I'm not sure she is the most graceful of dancers but she sure has fun trying!

November is adoption awareness month.  Everywhere I look there are posters advertising adoption, commercials, radio ads, books, magazine articles, articles on Facebook, etc.  It takes me back to three years ago when we began exploring the call to adopt.  It is also the season of Thanksgiving.  Not a day goes by that I don't give thanks for Lila and answering the call to adopt.  This little firecracker has filled our lives with joy and meaning and have made us better people.  One thing I didn't anticipate after we brought Lila was all of the attention we would attract.  I expected the stares and confused looks but what I didn't expect was how many new "friends" I would make.  Every time we go out someone comes up to me and starts telling me how beautiful she is.  It is usually a middle aged white woman.  This woman is usually with her husband.  The woman usually looks longingly at Lila and sometimes I wonder if these women have an adoption connection.  When they approach us telling us how beautiful she is I sense that they are also communicating that they think adoption is beautiful.  One lady at the deli counter recently started caressing my arm (really??) as she stared at Lila and gushed over her!  Now I think Lila is stunningly beautiful (but I am biased) and she has the ability to draw people to her with her lively personality but I wonder if these same women would stop her if she was with an African American woman and tell her how beautiful she is.  No one has ever caressed my arm at the deli counter telling me how beautiful my other children are. No longer can I be an inconspicuous traveler.  Recently, we flew to Texas and it was quite the experience. The best part was when we were at the Starbucks counter at the airport and the ladies working there began asking me where she was from. They were from Ethiopia as well and they even called out all the other workers (also from Ethiopia) to come see her and talk to us.  So of course we got into a discussion about ET and I told them how much I loved the country.  A couple of them got tears in their eyes and thanked me so much for adopting her.  I was blown away.  They told me that her life will be wonderful here.  They said they loved their home country but there is no opportunity for them there.  I was sad, happy, overwhelmed, heavy hearted all at the same time. I wanted to stay and talk with them all day.

Perhaps at least temporarily are the days long gone when I can retreat in my seat with my book and be invisible.  Everyone wanted to talk to her and us.  I had men and women want to know where she was from, how did we come to adopt her, how long have we had her home, how is her English.  It is amazing how many questions people ask.   Now since adoption is my favorite subject I don't mind at all.  It just amuses me.  She remains unfazed.  I wonder how long this will go on.  Will we get the same questions when she is 12? 16?

Some other little Lila stories from the past few months.

She catches on quick to ridiculous American traditions.  She lost her first tooth in our presence (3rd one in total) and I had plans to follow an African tradition of throwing the tooth on the roof and then a special bird will replace it with a new healthy one if you sing a little special song. Isn't that a million times better than the tooth fairy??!! Well as soon as she lost it one of our friends told her all about how the tooth fairy will bring her money if she puts it under her pillow.  Well that ended the sweet little bird on the roof story!  This girl loves money.  She takes after her brother Andrew!  As soon as we got home she put that tooth under her pillow and woke up extra early to show us "my money!"

It also took her about 5 minutes to catch on to Halloween.  She basically got to trick or treat three times because we did Boo at the Zoo, Candy by the Carload, and then of course Trick or Treating on Halloween night.  She came to America not liking sweets and those days are long gone!  She got the most candy of any of our kids and she is still working through her stash.  She was "Sleeping Booty" and she loved dressing up.  She already told us that next year she plans on being Minnie Mouse.

She says "blember" for remember.  When she doesn't want you to laugh she says, "No smiley!"

She is in the Children's program at Bible Study Fellowship (I am in the adult class) and she loves going and never forgets her bible and loves to share what we learned that day.  She loves Jesus and loves going to church.  She loves bible stories and every time she sees a cross she says, "Jesus." One day as we were coming home from BSF we saw a homeless man on the side of the highway.  Lila started asking me all kinds of questions about him.  When I explained that he didn't have a home and that he was hungry she said, "Well then we have to feed him! That will make God happy."  Now feeding the homeless wasn't on my list of things to do that day but how do you say no to that one.  So we went and bought the man some food which Lila had a wonderful time picking out and drove waaaaaay out of our way to turn around to be on the correct side of the highway where he was. I explained to her that he might not be there when we get back and that just means that God had another plan for him today.  He wasn't there.  Thinking Lila was going to be crushed I turned to her and she looked at me and said, "Well, we can eat now."  And that was the day we ate a homeless man's lunch.

She is bossy and loud (we are working on this) and can be a faker.  She has been know to feign illness so she can sit in the middle seats in the van instead of in the back.. Unfortunately, the kids have never stopped fighting over where to sit.  The kids are catching on quick to her ploys.  She wants to be everywhere Brooke is and do everything Brooke does.  She loves her brothers just as much but I think with Brooke being closer in age and the girl factor plays a big part.   The other day Lila was watching me brush Brooke's long blond hair into a ponytail and she says, "I want long hair like Brookie's." My reaction was to hug her and tell her how beautiful she is and that her hair is growing, blah, blah, blah.  Sweet Brooke simply got a ponytail holder and made Lila a little ponytail on the side of her head.  They both smiled with satisfaction as Brooke said, "See. Now you have a ponytail like me."   They spent the rest of the morning making little ponytails all over her head.  She was thrilled.  This is why she loves her Brookie so.

Long gone are the days where she is standoffish to Matt.  She is now the first to greet him at the door and always wants to know where Daddy is and when is he getting home.  She races to try to be the first to hug him. She loves her daddy and it is sweet to watch them together.

From the moment we stepped foot in Ethiopia I wanted to adopt again before we even brought Lila home.  I thought that desire might change but it hasn't.  I would love to adopt again.  But Matt says we are done and that four is enough.  I will have to say that I do love having an even number in my family.  There is something about even numbers that makes our family life more fluid.  It is like how I have to live somewhere with seasons.  It just works.  So I think I would prefer six kids to five kids but since that won't happen I will enjoy every day with the four children God has blessed us with.   I cannot wait to go back to Ethiopia.  I miss the smells, the crazy traffic, the people, the sounds, the tastes.  The boys and I did a 5K this fall to benefit the Ethiopian Orphan Relief group.  There were many Ethiopians there and my heart swelled just by seeing these people and being around them.  It is also always wonderful to be around other ET adoptive families.  I can't wait to  go back and hopefully it will be sometime soon.   I think about Ethiopia all the time.  We talk about Ethiopia all the time.  A piece of my heart will aways be there. I cannot wait to take our children there someday and show Lila her home country.  One night recently Extreme Makeover Home Edition featured a family who had adopted a little boy form ET through our agency, All God's Children International.  Some of the footage included Hannah's Hope and the director of AGCI speaking with Almaz (the director of Hannah's Hope) and one of the special mothers.  The special mother shown was the one who was skipping rope with Lila the fist day we met her.  It choked me up to see Almaz and this mother standing in Hannah's Hope.  I wanted to laser beam myself there right at that moment.  They also showed a half second clip of some children at HH and Matt and I kept pausing it over and over trying to figure out if one of the girls shown was Lila.  They filmed it last winter so it is possible!

Now we have the joy of celebrating Christmas with our sweet girl.  I am soooo excited about this.  She is having a ball participating in all of the festivities.   It truly is a special time.  More later (hopefully not four months later) on this.